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| Blessed Peregrina Mogas Fontcuberta, Pray for us ! |
⛪ Saint of the Day : July 3
⛪ Born :
13 January 1827
CorrΓ³ de Vall, Granollers, Barcelona, Kingdom of Spain
⛪ Died :
3 July 1886 (aged 59)
Fuencarral, Madrid, Kingdom of Spain
⛪ Patronage :
Franciscan Missionaries of the Mother of the Divine Shepherd
Blessed Peregrina Mogas Fontcuberta (13 January 1827 - 3 July 1886) was a Spanish Roman Catholic professed religious in the name of "MarΓa Ana" and the founder of the Franciscan Missionaries of the Mother of the Divine Shepherd. Mogas Fontcuberta was in a Capuchin congregation before establishing her own order and was under the guidance of Blessed Josep Tous Soler.
The beatification cause commenced under Pope Paul VI on 11 June 1977 and Pope John Paul II beatified her on 6 October 1996.
Peregrina Mogas Fontcuberta was born in Spain on 13 January 1827 to LlorenΓ§ Mogas – a farmer and innkeeper – and Magdalena Fontcuberta. She was baptized mere hours after her birth and she made her First Communion either at the age of six or seven. Her father died when she was seven and her mother followed when she was fourteen.
Her paternal aunt Dona Maria Mogas – who was also her godmother – raised her following the death of her parents, due to being childless and widowed. Her confessor around this time was the priest Mosen Gorgas. She joined a range of parish activities in the parish of Santa Maria del Mar with her confessor.
In Barcelona – in 1848 – she met two nuns of the Capuchin congregation living together in a rented flat and through them met Blessed Josep Tous Soler. She became quite impressed with the charism and following of Saint Francis of Assisi and decided to join them in their desire to found a school, and so left all she had to follow this clear calling. The Bishop of Vic Luciano Casadevall accepted their proposal and allowed them to open a school in Ripoll.
In 1850 – despite the reluctance of her confessor – she went to Ripoll where she was clothed in the habit of the Capuchins of the Divine Shepherdess. The school opened on 27 May 1850 and less than a month later on 13 June 1850 she became the superior of that school in September 1851 despite still being in the novitiate. She returned to the cloistered life in October 1851 to complete her novitiate. On 25 January 1851 she made her profession into the order and received a diploma in teaching in March 1853 while assuming her new name of "MarΓa Ana" on 25 June.
Mogas Fontcuberta also met and discussed the theme of education with Saint Antonio Maria Claret. On 10 December 1865 she accompanied four nuns to assist Antonia de Oviedo SchΓΆntal with her new religious congregation. In 1868 she led a group of religious as the director of a kindergarten in the capital of Madrid. The Cardinal Archbishop of Toledo Cirilo de Alameda i Brea approved Fontcuberta of founding her own religious order and it was established on 16 January 1872 as the Franciscan Missionaries of the Mother of the Divine Shepherd.
Mogas Fontcuberta died at midnight on 3 July 1871 due to a stroke which she suffered in 1878. The institute received the papal decree of praise on 22 September 1894 while diocesan approval came on 4 July 1896. Formal approval from Pope Leo XIII was issued on 8 August 1899. The order was aggregated to the Order of Friars Minor on 19 June 1906 and as of 2005 there was 669 religious in 105 houses in places such as Benin and Portugal.
The beatification process commenced in Madrid in an informative process that commenced on 5 March 1949 and concluded its business on 28 May 1963; theologians took charge of all of her theological writings and declared that the latter were in line with the magisterium of the faith, in an official decree of 21 October 1965. A historical commission in a diocesan process then commenced another investigation spanning a decade from 1978 to 1988.
She was titled as a Servant of God under Pope Paul VI on 11 June 1977 after the cause commenced on a formal level at the behest of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.
Historians met on 9 May 1989 to approve the cause while the C.C.S. validated the process on 1 December 1989. The C.C.S. received the Positio in 1990 and passed it onto consulting theologians on 3 June 1994 for their approval. The C.C.S. approved the cause on 18 October 1994. Pope John Paul II proclaimed her to be Venerable on 15 December 1994 after confirming her life of heroic virtue.
The process of investigating a miracle spanned from 1989 until 1990 and received C.C.S. validation on 12 February 1993. A medical board voiced approval to the miracle on 14 June 1995 while theologians came to the same conclusion on 1 November 1995; the C.C.S. voted in favor on 5 March 1996. The pope granted his final approval on 25 June 1996 and beatified her on 6 October 1996.
